378 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 13, 



What Caused the Bees to Die P 



What is the matter with my bees ? This morning I went 

 to look at them and found lots of dead and dying bees on 

 the ground. They would come out of the hive and alight on 

 the ground and die. Lots coming back loaded with pollen 

 would alight at the bee-entrance and go no further. It looked 

 hard to see the ground covered with bees in such a short time, 

 and no help for it. My three colonies were in the same condi- 

 tion. I opened some of the hives and found a nasty, dark 

 brown, thick liquid in them — it looked to me as if they got 

 something that poisoned them. I know of nothing that I can 

 do to help them. They have been falling down all day, out of 

 the air, and cannot fly again. If this keeps on for three or 

 four days, I will have none left. I never saw a stronger lot 

 of bees than they were Saturday, and on Sunday morning 

 they were in bad condition. E. F. 



Portland, Maine, May 25. 



Answer. — The only thing I can think of is poison of some 

 kind, and I can't suggest any remedy. It seems a very sad 

 case. Please let us know the final outcome. 



Conducted by "BEE-MASTER." 



What Constitutes an Italian Queen, and a Purely- 

 mated Italian Queen i 



These are questions that seem to engage the minds of 

 many bee-keepers, owing, I believe, to the many discussions 

 going on in several of our bee-papers, about this much-abused 

 race of yellow bees. It is rather amusing to read the com- 

 ments made by several editors of bee-papers. Take, for in- 

 stance, those made by the editor of Gleanings. Scarcely a 

 paper comes to hand but contains some comment, either orig- 

 inal or copied from other journals, denouncing this yellow 

 race of bees. If it is possible to have them banished from our 

 land, some certainly are determined to leave no stone unturned 

 to accomplish this end. 



If those who are so keen to place barriers in the way of 

 progress could rear and maintain the yellow race as easily as 

 they can the hybrids they call " pure Italians," (because their 

 worker progeny show three yellow bands) the yellow race 

 would at once be accepted as the coming bee. The great ditfi- 

 culty in perpetuating the distinct characteristics makes this a 

 hard matter with the rank and file of bee-keepers. It will 

 continue to be so until yellow drones predominate to the ex- 

 tent that black drones now do. This may take half a century 

 to accomplish. If the editors of some of our papers keep up 

 the crusade as they have done in the past, we may bid fare- 

 well to the advancement of bee-culture on this line. We are 

 glad to know, however, that all bee-keepers do not write for 

 or edit bee-journals, but know a good thing when they see it. 



As bee-keepers, we have been led to believe that the queen 

 is the most potent factor in transmitting qualities, v/hen we 

 should have been taught to look to the drone. It is an ascer- 

 tained fact that all breeders of thoroughbred stock who have 

 risen to eminence admit the male to be the chief part of the 

 herd. This is a subject of great interest, and wide scope, but 

 will be confined in the present article to the observations of 

 the writer, as it would take up too much space to go into the 

 matter fully as to the origin of this race, and ho\v color is pro- 

 duced. This may at some future date be done. 



Before making an attempt to explain my views on this 

 subject, let me draw your attention to the law of similarity. 

 This is one of the plainest and most certain of the laws of 

 Nature. Children resemble their parents, and they do so he- 

 cause this is hereditary. The law is constant within certain 

 limits. Progeny always and everywhere resemble their par- 

 ents. If this were not so, there would be no constancy of 

 species. For in all time we find repeated, in the offspring, 

 the instincts and all the general characteristics of the parents, 

 and never those of another species. Such is the law of Nature, 

 and hence the axiom, " Like produces like." 



Now if we get what the generality of queen-breeders call 

 a pure Italian queen, is there a similarity, or like producing 

 like, in their progeny ? According to the views of some who 

 sell and breed queens, any kind of a queen that produces 

 three-banded bees is recognized as being a pure Italian. That, 

 in ray opinion, is no proof whatever, as will be shown, but 



the prevalence of this idea shows how little interest is taken 

 in the purity of our bees. 



A pure queen is one that will duplicate herself in her 

 drone progeny, whether black, gray or yellow. A pure black 

 queen will always produce pure black drones and every one 

 so. A pure Carniolan will produce the same caste as the 

 mother, and a pure Italian will produce yellow drones — as yel- 

 low as the mother. How many, in getting pure Italian queens, 

 find the drones as yellow as the queens, and every one so ? I 

 am afraid, if you look closely into this matter, the drones will 

 be found a very mixed or mottled race. If that is the case, 

 then you have not got a pure queen. Why ? Because like 

 produces like. Drones have no father, the queen having the 

 power of parthenogenesis complete within herself as far as 

 drone progeny is concerned. The drone progeny never be- 

 comes affected by the queen being fertilized, because the 

 drone, when copulation takes place, discharges only one polar 

 body, which is female, and therefore influences only the 

 worker-bees. Any parties who assert to the contrary are ig- 

 norant of the facts of the case. Having disposed of this ques- 

 tion, we come to a second, viz.: 



What constitutes a purely-mated Italian queen ? A 

 purely-mated Italian queen will produce uniformly-marked 

 workers, yellow to the tip, completely so on the under side of 

 the abdomen, but the best proof is to produce queens from the 

 worker-eggs of the previous queen, and if they produced per- 

 fectly yellow drones, that would be positive proof of their 

 mother's purity, and also that she was purely mated. I know 

 whereof I speak, and if you give one dash of pure black blood 

 to a pure Italian queen, it will take IT generations to breed it 

 out again. In other words, 17 straight crosses of pure blood, 

 and some of the drones would not be extra yellow at that. 

 Some would show a little bronze on the last segment of the ab- 

 domen. At the 16th cross the workers will be perfect, but 

 the drone progeny will show a percentage jet black, or nearly 

 so, up to the 16th generation, showing conclusively that the 

 characteristic of color is more indelible in the drone than the 

 worker. If we want to improve our raice of bees, and do so 

 rapidly, we must look a little more to the drone than we have 

 heretofore done, for the transmitting of characteristics. 



This brings me to a third question : How can a queen or 

 drone transmit instincts or characteristics that neither ever 

 possessed ? Color, disposition, and constitution no doubt are 

 transmitted through both. Farther than this I cannot go 

 without calling in the aid of a third party, which seems to me 

 to play an important part in transmitting qualities, that is, 

 the drones from laying workers. Having now in my posses- 

 sion the offspring of queens mated from that source, such 

 queens, in my opinion, may not be so long lived as those mated 

 by drones the offspring of fertilized queens ; but there cer- 

 tainly is no difference in their offspring, to all appearance. 

 They lay eggs just as good and plentiful as any other queen, 

 and work as vigorously. Queens were superseded last season ; 

 had they been queens properly mated, that is to say, with 

 drones from fertile queens, supersedure may have taken place 

 the same. They survived long enough so that through their 

 offspring the instincts and all the general characteristics of 

 the parents were transmitted. There is no doubt we have 

 this class of laying workers ever present. They were ob- 

 served by the writer many years ago in extracting from the 

 upper stories with queen-excluders. I found where drone- 

 combs were used that often drone-brood was present. At first 

 I thought the queen had been there, but close observation re- 

 vealed the fact that it was the work of laying workers, a 

 queen being in the brood-chamber. Seeing that such is the 

 case, there is nothing surer than that they are ever present, 

 and through their instrumeutalily habits, instincts, and all 

 the general characteristics of bee-nature are transmitted, 

 which neither queens nor drones — the offspring of queens — 

 ever possessed. It therefore becomes a necessity in the 

 workers to be drone-layers, or how do they know how to build 

 drone-cells, having inherited no such tact through mother, 

 father or any predecessor, unless through their own male 

 descendants? Thus the drones from laying workers are a po- 

 tent factor in transmitting certain characteristics. 



We see the best evidence of this in a young swarm becom- 

 ing queenless. They have a perfect knowledge of their con- 

 dition, constructing drone-cells only, and if allowed would fill 

 them with drone eggs. Introduce a queen, fertile or unfertile, 

 and the construction of drone-cells immediately ceases. Does 

 not that look as if they were governed by reason? And, 

 moreover, they as a rule select drone-cells to lay in, and seem 

 to know their business better than an unfertile queen. They 

 don't seem to realize their condition and lay promiscuously. 

 Comparing the labors of a queen-wasp and a queen-bee, I am 

 inclined to look upon a queen-bee as being a degradation. 



Toronto, Out. John McArthur. 



